The present invention relates to an electronic device in which a display housing and an operation housing are coupled so that they are movable relative to each other, and to an input interface switching method for the electronic device.
In recent years, portable terminals represented by mobile phones, PHS (Personal Handy Phone System), PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) or mobile personal computers are becoming smaller, lighter and more functionally satisfied. There are electronic devices which can have a compact form when waiting for a call and can be transformed for easy operation when they are used. Such an electronic device has, for example, a display housing and an operation housing which are coupled with a rail, hinge or bearing so that the housings can be variously transformed by sliding, folding or rotating them.
There is a known art, for such a transformable electronic device, that when an operation housing which slides relative to a display housing is stopped at a predetermined position, an imaging device such as a camera is activated automatically, as described for example in Patent Document 1. According to the art, the imaging device can be activated, not by a troublesome operation but by a simple operation i.e. sliding the housings. In addition, there is another known art, for a camera with two slidable housings, that the operation housing is protected when waiting for a call, and it is exposed by sliding it when it is used, as described for example in Patent Document 2.
Besides, there is another known art that a plurality of housing slide directions are prepared in the same device and a different application is activated in accordance with the slide direction. According to the art, for example, a television viewer is activated when a housing is slid in one direction and an imaging device is activated when the housing is slid in another direction, as described for example in Patent Document 3.
Moreover, there is another known art that a housing is provided with a plurality of independent layered operation drawers and any one of the operation drawers is derived, exposed and used selectively, as described in Patent Document 4.
Patent Document 1: Japan Laid Open Patent 2005-277468
Patent Document 2: Japan Laid Open Patent 2006-313197
Patent Document 3: Japan Laid Open Patent 2005-341480
Patent Document 4: Japan Laid Open Patent 2003-319044
According to the prior arts, an application can be automatically activated only by changing relative positions of two housings. However, since operation keys for operating the application are fixedly arranged, the function, position and number of the input interface are limited and therefore various applications cannot be utilized sufficiently.
Besides, the prior arts use fixedly arranged operation keys (fixedly arranged input interface) so that it is not possible to change the input interface for each user. Accordingly, even for a child or old people who do not need a complicated input interface, the needless operation keys cannot be eliminated. So, various input interfaces would sometimes disturb the operation of the device.
The present invention attempts to solve the above problems. The object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device and an input interface switching method, wherein usability of the device is improved by the applications which can be activated easily and rapidly and by useful input interfaces.
In order to solve the above stated problems, according to an aspect of the present invention, an electronic device comprises: a display housing having a first display unit; an operation housing coupled to said display housing so that said operation housing is movable substantially in parallel to and relative to a surface of said display facing said operation housing housing, said operation housing having a second display unit which displays an operation screen and a touch panel piled on the second display unit so that the operation screen is visible; a position detection unit for detecting a relative position of said display housing and said operation housing; and a control unit for deciding an application displayed on the first display unit in accordance with the relative position detected by said position detection unit; wherein said control unit switches the operation screen displayed on the second display unit in accordance with the application displayed on the first display unit.
When said position detection unit detects the relative position, said control unit may activate an application corresponding to the relative position and display contents of the activated application on the first display unit.
When several applications are running at the same time, said control unit may display on the first display unit contents of one of the running applications corresponding to the relative position detected by said position detection unit.
The second display unit may be arranged on the surface of said operation housing which faces said display housing.
The second display unit may display the operation screen in accordance with the relative position detected by said position detection unit, based on divided display areas which are exposed by relative movement of said display housing and said operation housing arranged in the relative movement direction of said display housing and said operation housing.
The touch panel may be formed as a form corresponding to the divided display areas.
An application may be assigned to a relative position of said display housing and said operation housing by which display areas required by the operation screen for the application are supplied in the second display unit, and said control unit may display on the first display unit contents of the application corresponding to the relative position detected by said position detection unit.
In order to solve the above stated problems, according to another aspect of the present invention, an input interface switching method used in an electronic device which comprises a display housing having a first display unit, an operation housing coupled to the display housing so that the operation housing is movable substantially in parallel to and relative to a surface of the display housing facing the operation housing, said operation housing having a second display unit which displays an operation screen and a touch panel piled on the second display unit so that the operation screen is visible, may comprise: a step for a detecting a relative position of the display housing and the operation housing; and a step for switching the operation screen displayed on the second display unit in accordance with an application decided to be displayed on the first display unit based on the detected relative position.
The structural elements and their explanations which correspond to the technological ideas in the electronic device stated above can also be applied to the input interface switching method.